Air Force Pay Cuts Looming Next Month for Airmen in the Service’s Toughest Jobs

Enlisted airmen who work in some of the Air Force‘s most difficult jobs will receive from $900 to $5,400 less annually beginning next month as the service faces financial challenges that affect the ranks.

Hundreds of service members will see cuts to their Special Duty Assignment Pay, known as SDAP, in fiscal 2023 — which starts Oct. 1. Those monthly payments, ranging from $75 to $450, were an extra incentive “to compensate enlisted service members who serve in duties which are extremely difficult,” according to budget documents.

“The Air Force saw an overall reduction of over $3 million to the FY23 SDAP budget based on fiscal constraints,” service spokeswoman Laurel Falls told Military.com. “Due to the reduced funding levels, SDAP rates for 44 functional communities saw reductions.”

In the fiscal 2023 budget, the Air Force is asking the federal government for 30,845 airmen to receive the more than $90.2 million worth of Special Duty Assignment Pay.

It’s a lower figure than the last two years, being cut by $1.5 million and around 500 airmen, according to budget documents.

For 2022, the Air Force asked for 31,334 airmen to receive $91.7 million; in 2021, the service asked for 30,967 airmen to receive $90.8 million in Special Duty Assignment Pay.

The Air Force is facing a $3 million shortfall to the Special Duty Assignment Budget for 2023, according to the service. Air Force Headquarters held a meeting this past November to address the problem prior to crafting the 2023 budget, Falls told Military.com.

To avoid the cuts, lawmakers would have to reinstate the Special Duty Assignment Pay difference in the 2023 budget proposal before it’s approved by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden. The military’s annual budget could be finalized later this year.

Dozens of Air Force career fields will be affected by the cut to Special Assignment Duty Pay. One of those is recruiters.

Air Force Recruiting Service recruiters are set to lose their $75 in special duty pay each month for fiscal 2023, which would add up to nearly $900 a year in lost wages.

Losing the pay could be a blow to recruiters’ morale as they face difficult challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, economic inflation and a shifting workforce. Maj. Gen. Ed Thomas, the head of the Air Force Recruiting Service, promised recruiters he would push for the extra pay to be reinstated in the next fiscal year.

The general “recognizes the unique challenges Air Force recruiters and their families experience and he is working to have the monthly $75 payment restored in the future,” spokesman Randy Martin told Military.com

Here’s a list of all the Air Force’s special duty pay that would be reduced in fiscal 2023, according to budget documents:

Recruiters
Basic Military Training instructors
Human Intelligence debriefers
Combat Controllers
Pararescue operators
Command chief master sergeants
First sergeants
Defense Attaché Office (DAO) liaisons
Nuclear Enterprise airmen
Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) agents
Air Traffic Control (ATC) supervisors
Postal and National Defense Advisory Commission (NDAC) enablers
Tactical Air Command and Control Party (TACP) operators
Enlisted pilots and weapons directors
Parachute instructors and those with test parachute program
Flight attendants
Mission system specialists
Load masters
USAF Honor Guards
Special Reconnaissance operators
Phoenix Raven Security Forces defenders
Forward Area Refueling Point enablers
Flying crew chiefs
Defense couriers
Airmen who support various commands
Enlisted airmen who work with special government agencies
Public affairs airmen assigned to recruiting squadrons
Air transportation airmen
Airmen assigned to special classified Air Force projects.

— Thomas Novelly can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @TomNovelly.

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